Chinese Cities Have Absolutely Dominated The Past Twenty Years

Chinese cities have been on an absolute economic tear in recent years.

The Brookings Institute 's latest report, the Global MetroMonitor Report, tracks the economic growth of metro areas from 2011-2012 — and Chinese cities were clearly miles ahead of their counterparts in the West.

13 of the top 20 cities in the Overall Economic Index — which is calculated using annualized growth rate of real GDP per capita and annualized growth employment — were from China, including the special administrative region of Macau at number one.

But over the last twenty years the results are even more impressive. Business Insider asked Brookings how GDP and employment has changed from 1993 to 2012, and here's what we found:

Data: Brookings Institute, Rank: Business Insider

Cities are ranked according to the Brookings data. Rankings were derived by adding real GDP per capita growth rank and employment growth rank.

A full 27 of the 28 fastest growing metro economies of the past twenty years are in China, if you count Macau.

The real GDP per capita of Hefei, the hottest city of the past twenty years, has grown a flabbergasting 1102 percent. Although the city survived mostly on agriculture before the Chinese Civil War, today it is a large manufacturing hub. It's also a research hub as well — Hefei has the "first and sole Science and Technology Innovation Pilot City in China."